Gift of a Lifetime

Chapter 4: Murderer- I

Throughout the summer I could barely go out without getting looked at weird, sometimes even getting called names. It was the worst summer of my life.

One day, being bold enough (because I hadn't been out in a while) I was on a walk down an empty street early in the morning. I was walking towards the sun, barely above the horizon. It made a dark indigo color high in the sky, where, more closer to the ground, was a bright yellow-orange, setting a golden glow across the town below. I had been down this street before, by now I have forgotten what it was called, back in the summer before 7th grade right after I arrived. My mother had told me to explore, maybe buy something for us or myself, and I found this road.

When I saw a young girl across the street with her father, holding her hand to make sure he didn't lose her, I slowed my stride. Ginger waves falling to her shoulders, white dress decorated with purple flowers flowing alongside her knees. Lindsey, I thought, stopping in my tracks. But when she walked past, I saw the face of another girl, and I continued walking on in dismay.

The next few moments were muddy. Before I knew it I was underneath someone years older than me. I couldn't move--I had to be pinned down by a very strong person. The first smack was followed by slurs I couldn't recall.

For some reason my vision was not clear in the moment, as if I had put on a pair of glasses I didn't need, eyes watering, head throbbing.

The blows were getting stronger and I could feel his grip getting angrier. Agonizing pain spread all over my face, mainly in my nose and eyes. There was one particular swing that he had put more power in that sent red flying across my vision. Then another, then another, and at one point I knew my face was covered in dark red blood, almost appearing to be black.

At one point I thought I was going to die. But it was what I deserved, wasn't it?

I accepted my fate. But as my eyes drifted shut, the weight of him was suddenly lifted. I heard commotion, a familiar voice screaming, though I couldn't quite grasp who it was at the time, "You touch him again, I'll fucking kill you!"

"Tommy! Tommy!" Someone was grabbing my face, forcing me back to reality. Dark glasses, dark, curly hair. I had almost wanted to lay there and die, tell him to just leave me, but when he slid his arm under my legs with a struggling groan to lift me up and carry me, I had no other choice.

My weight was tearing him down after a few feet of walking, and he set me down against the glass window of an abandoned shop. He grabbed my face with a gentleness that brought me to a better place, making me look at him.

"Jayden?" I murmured.

"Yes! Yes," He hollered, "Hey, look at me," he added more softly when I began to zone out and close my eyes, "Can you walk?"

I paused in confusion. "What?" Nothing made sense anymore.

The next few stages were a frantic blur, Jayden's features fading in and out, blood everywhere, sitting in an alleyway, paper towels and ice being pressed all over my face, staying there because I was too afraid to go home, and one moment where Jayden hugged me. The thing that scared me most was someone seeing me like this. Except for Jayden, who has seen me at my absolute lowest.

When he was leaning over the Neosporin, dabbing cotton swabs on the tip, I finally found the strength to speak. "Jayden." He looked up from his work, a bright gleam in his eyes.

"What are you . . ." My voice trailed off. I couldn't remember what I was going to say.

"What?"

"Am I going to-

"No. No," He grasped my shoulder.

A warm sensation flooded deep within my cheeks, tasting of a salty metal, when I could feel it escaping from my lips in a quick manner.